Circle Exchange Signs Agreement To Acquire Crowdfunder SeedInvest

Circle has signed an agreement to acquire SeedInvest, an equity crowdfunding site and an SEC and FINRA-registered Broker-Dealer. The acquisition and planned new offerings are subject to FINRA approval.

Headquartered in New York City, SeedInvest has been at the forefront in new models of startup fundraising, having built the largest equity crowdfunding platform in the United States. To date, SeedInvest has helped hundreds of startups raise capital online and has built a network of over 200,000 investors.

Circle’s vision is one of an open, global and connected digital economy built on crypto assets and blockchain infrastructure. A critical element of realizing this vision is building new ways for businesses, and ultimately individuals, to use crypto assets to more efficiently raise capital, manage investors and provide liquidity. Furthermore, Circle aims to continue to raise the bar for the crypto industry by embracing securities regulation as it applies to crypto and paving the way for security tokens.

Executing on this vision requires legally compliant ways to use crypto assets and tokens to raise capital, as well as end-to-end services that can help startups and growth companies of all sizes to register, issue, and distribute these tokenized assets to individual and institutional investors. This acquisition will enable companies to efficiently raise capital through a regulated platform, tap into diversified retail investor portfolios through Circle Invest and provide investors with secondary market liquidity on Circle’s digital asset exchange.

The SeedInvest product includes many of the end-to-end capabilities needed for executing regulated crowdfunding, including startup due diligence, securities issuance, investor accreditation, payments and securities custody, as well as a broad range of innovative tools for startups to market their crowdfunding offerings online in a compliant fashion. With the merger and approval from key regulators, these capabilities will be expanded to support crypto-denominated investments including using fiat stablecoins such as USDC, as well as issuing and offering tokenized securities.

The SeedInvest team will add 30 team members to Circle’s New York location.